Learning from my recent AvGeek Weekend Trip with SAS, I decided to go to the airport a little bit earlier today as I was not flying a SkyTeam airline so I wouldn’t get the access to the priority security lane at Schiphol. The last time I had to wait for about 45 minutes for the security check! I arrived at the airport at around 8 AM, about two hours prior to departure, haha😆 . However, it turned out that today the security check was not busy at all and I did not even need to queue! Damn!!

Austrian Airlines’ Embraer ERJ195 reg OE-LWM

Long story short, boarding commenced on time from Pier B of Schiphol. Btw, today OS 372 was operated with an Embraer 195 reg OE-LWM, much to my excitement because it would be my first time ever flying an Embraer 195! Yeay!! I settled onto my 8F seat. The leg room was very spacious, and this was one reason why I loved flying a regional jet!

Good legroom on board Austrian Airlines’ OE-LWM

Boarding the flight was quite unique for European standard, in the sense that they played a boarding instrumental music! It was my first time (as far I recall) encountering a European airline playing a boarding music (Garuda Indonesia normally does the same). And as I was flying Austrian to the Austrian capital of Vienna, very fittingly they played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at the time!! 😍

Anyway, not long after, we departed and the safety demo was done manually. We took off from runway 18L of Schiphol and our 1.5 hours flight to Vienna began.

Taking off from runway 18L of Schiphol, runway 24 making an appearance

It took awhile for the pilots to turn off the seatbelt signs off for the passengers. In fact, they did it just when the FAs were ready to distribute the snack service. The snack choice was savoury or sweet (I chose the former) and a selection of drinks (I asked for a coffee and still water).

At around noon, we were approaching Vienna already and I could see the not-so-promising weather from the above, where a lot of cloud had been formed. Anyway, we landed smoothly at runway 34 of Vienna International Airport. Here is the landing video:

My returning flight from Vienna was super unique, and this was the reason why I chose this particular flight (aside from the perfect schedule😛 ). While it was an Austrian Airlines’ flight, it would be operated by SunExpress Deutschland, a German airline that was a subsidiary of a Turkish airline (SunExpress). Very anti-mainstream, so obviously I liked!!

Sun Express Deutschland’s Boeing 737-800 reg D-ASXD

The flight today was operated with a Boeing 737-800. I was happy that I managed to secure one of the front-row window seats, seat 4F that was in the first row of economy on board D-ASXD. The legroom was a little bit tight for a full-service standard (SunExpress was not really a full-service airline actually), btw. Anyway, not long after boarding, we departed and took off from runway 29 of Vienna Airport. Upon taking-off, we also passed the city of Vienna. Beautiful!

Vienna from above

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A Funny Drama

Anyway, the departure today was delayed for about 20 minutes. Just after take-off and the seatbelt sign was switched off, there was a group of travellers sitting at the back of the plane DECIDED THEMSELVES that they deserved to be moved to the business class due to the delay because they had a connecting flight 😅. I mean, like, come on dudes, you were not the only ones getting a delayed flight on board this flight? Like… 😅

In their defense, this “upgrade” practice was not uncommon. Moving connecting passengers forward in a delayed flight would minimize the risk of these passengers missing their connections, thus no extra cost for the airline (otherwise the airline would have had to buy the passengers new tickets, which meant: cost). I had experienced it a couple of times when flying AirFrance, for instance this time.

The guy in white decided to move himself to the business class

However, as far as I know, this was done only if the crew did not think they could recover the delay and so the connecting time becoming too tight. In this circumstance, the crew would approach the passengers and asked them to move forward. This was usually done just minutes before landing. This made sense, because the passengers only needed the forward seats to get off the plane; and of course the crew had the responsibility to make business class as exclusive as possible. Otherwise, how would the actual paying business class passengers feel when a cheap economy passenger was moved to business class just after departure just because the passenger had a connecting flight?

So certainly it was not the passengers’ judgment on whether or not they deserved to be moved forward; and certainly not just after take-off and just after the seatbelt sign had been switched off.

On board SunExpress Deutschland’s Boeing 737-800 reg D-ASXD. The seats with the red cap were the Europe business class seats.

I was happy to see the crew being very firm and asked these passengers to move back to their original seats. One guy tried to argue with one of the FAs, but she made her point clear and said she could not let them sit in business class, even if they did not ask for any business class meal service. Finally, the passengers listened to the crew and moved back to their original seats.

What I found funny was that midway through the flight, the captain made an announcement that despite the departure delay, we would still land on time in Amsterdam! Lol😆

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The snack service on board flight OS 373

Anyway, back to the flight story. Midway through, a snack service was distributed. The snack was literally a small piece of apple and a selection of drink, so it was rather disappointing in my opinion, haha😆 . Overall, the flight was okay and rather uneventful. At 5 PM, we landed at my least favorite runway of Schiphol, the Polderbaan.